Interview with poet David White

I'd promised this some time ago. This is for those readers that did not make it to the pdf. (Well, hmmm, I can't find it myself at the moment.)



On Jun 9, 2005, at 12:08 PM, George Lottermoser began an email interview with David White:

GL: Good morning David. We've known each other for close to 15 years. Our first conversations occured between a graphic designer (me) and a printer (you). As time went on I came to know you as a publisher of "Good Work" foreign language products, poetry chap books, the AZML Knews Review, a poet, and a guitar picking singer. You seem passionate about and fascinated by spoken, printed and sung words. In this age of huge amounts of verbal and visual information what keeps you rearranging letters and words?

DLW: It is not about seeking a singular perfection, but about experiencing the diversity. It's not as if I will make the perfect poem, song, or article and then quit. That would be like thinking I could make a perfect grocery list and then stop eating. Life goes on. We could use a hunting or fishing metaphor to answer the question. Why do people hunt for sport? For sport. It's the hunt. The catch. I personally don't hunt animals. I would be content fishing with some of the simple, traditional gear except the hook. Pole, line, bobber, sinker, period. As a poet I want to get out, sit on the dock, feel the breeze, dangle my feet in the water, and catch a mess of words and phrases. To be able to describe that bit of reality as the sun stands on the water. That is why I fish.

GL: OK. Let's stick with this metaphor. Where have you been dangling your feet lately? Where are the hot fishing spots?

DLW: The hot spots for me are probably similar to the hot spots for many. It's the hot spots themselves in the culture and the world. How do we describe to ourselves and amongst ourselves what's going on? How do we maintain a grip on it? The fishing metaphor moves easily into a cooking metaphor. To catch a mess of words and phrases with the intention of being nourished by them is the bigger picture. If I am not interested in 'watching my diet' then I must eat what mercury gets put in my metaphysical tuna.

GL: Wonderful. However, while you've answered in a way that lets us know the type of spots you like to fish and an awareness for the quality of your catch in relationship to nourishment and possible effects; can you be more specific as to where you've actually been lately? What you've caught? How did you prepare the catch? How did they taste?

DLW: We were up in central Wisconsin the first weekend in June. Marathon county. Ginseng country. The piney woods for this Milwaukee boy. I'd seen a piece on public TV about the Hmong population in Wausau and had a chance to talk at length to someone that lived in Wausau. Out of this came a few lines about the local flavor of a Hmong family diner and my willingness to try the braised bamboo shoots and the Sunday dog.

This is innocent ignorace at it's finest. And the principal reason to continue one's own investigations. I'm sorry to say that we were not able to take the time to actually locate a Hmong family diner. Next time.

And, we were so far from the non-stop beat of the humdrum, that I was able to put together a special piece for a young friend. A lovely and timely gift about not being in two places at once.

Grandpa used to say, "Don't talk. You'll scare the fish." The same thing working with words. Too many get in the way. A person needs a little space and quiet to figure out the difference.

GL: Well, the fishing metaphor, including the spot, the catch, the cooking and the consumption seems to have a lot of life. You recently shared with me an early draft of a poem which I found quiet profound. I've asked you to share it with this audience; to which you've generously agreed. The title of the poem is "Back in the Garden Again." Could you tell us a bit about where you were fishing when you caught its words and phrases?


DLW: Among the religions, I fish the Bible a bit. The NRSV specifically, and there's no better hole there than Genesis. I get stuck there time after time. I've lost a lot of lures. I don't know if I'm catching it or it's catching me. And right now, I'm up to my hip waders out in the river of that elusive old poem. I can tell I've got a lunker on the line.

You said it was an early draft and I think we should stay with that thought. Some things get revised and this will be one of those things. I might consider this Garden v.2.1. The thing that is so attractive for me about this is the bigger picture issues.

-=-=-=--=-=-
Back in the Garden Again v.2.1

I was walking with my Lord
in the cool of the evening
naked, not naked,
who even knew?

We were back in the garden
coming home, starting over,
with nothing, but everything
something old, something blue.

"You know", the Lord started,
a grin on his face,
"you left so quick when
I mentioned that tree

that I could not say
what you would not see,
I do not eat of it either,
in that, please believe."

The downside of good
is better than bad
but the worst of the evil
is in being had

by the fermented fruit,
on that tree in the glade.
Give the forgiveness.
It is judgement forbade.




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